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Comment by zkirill | Hacker News Reader

Awesome article. Just wondering, how can a hardware company voluntarily submit their device for reverse engineering and dismantling as a show of good faith? Given the right circumstances this is basically a free security audit and marketing for the company.

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They could just provided schematics, blueprints, parts explosion graphics, etc.

I have been a fan of the Sony MDR-7502 headphones since Moses was in a basket. They provide an explosion of each of the parts and their numbers so that you can order replacements. Granted, these are "old skool" dumb wired headphones, so no software is needed, nor are chips necessary to look up and what not.

They're decent for closed cans.

If you can go open at all, I'd recommend Sennheiser HD600. It doesn't get more solid than this.

The HD 560S are fantastic and cost much less than the HD 600.

HD600 from '97 are still fine today, and the design hasn't changed significantly.

HD560S are new, and use the same type of body HD598/99/579 do. They aren't anywhere as durable.

Ultimately they're bought for the sound; HD600 is the tried and true all-rounder neutral reference, and that's why it remains relevant.

HD560S is good relative to its peers at its price, but isn't tuned the same way, nor has it passed the test of time.

Same for the MDR-7506!

Speaking of wireless, their battery problems over time have already bit me, will continue buying "dumb" ones in the future.

Wouldn't it have been amazing if they'd taken that attitude with the PlayStation series? :)

Yes it would. I also think they are playing with their target audience. The headphones mentioned were meant for professional use, PlayStation ones are meant for consumers.

This doesn't mean they shouldn't have done it. They should. But they get away with it more easily.

If a company wants somebody to do a hardware audit for marketing purposes, they should pay money for that. Please fairly value people's labor, especially when you seek to profit from it.

Well, influencers are able to work out alternative means of compensation because the content is more valuable than the work performed. For example a blogger that is renowned for teardowns might do the work in exchange for access to early release models so that their content is highly relevant. That is worth more than the hourly cost to perform the teardown work. Compensation negotiation is part of the art of that deal.

If an influencer is indeed able to monetize the content sufficient to match market price for the labor, then sure, that is also fairly valuing people's labor. But that's definitely not what's happening here.

  right circumstances

If someone wants to do the hardware audit for free, or in exchange for some kind of promotional exchange, is that a bad thing? I’d breakdown a lot of devices if I could get a duplicate one intact, for free

This was a low-priced consumer good, so I don't think anything is stopping you from doing teardowns like this on your own.

Any company with sufficiently interesting hardware is welcome to send me a copy. Most hardware isn't very interesting though, so they'd likely have to pay me too.

iFixit offers their services to manufacturers: https://www.ifixit.com/solutions

There are plenty of other consultants that do that too, but they don't have the same reach and brand recognition.

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